China Nonferrous Metallurgy

The paper briefly introduced the market development status of the lithium industry, summarized the future production plans of major mining companies on the resource side, and forecast the supply and demand of lithium resources in combination with the development expectations of the downstream market. In addition, the historical price trend of lithium products and the reasons for their changes were expounded, the production costs of domestic and foreign lithium mines were analyzed, the price trend of lithium in the future was predicted, and the uncertain factors that may affect the development of the lithium industry were proposed. Based on the research, it's believed that with the active development of resources, the current tight supply situation will be alleviated and oversupply will occur in 2023 while the demand for lithium resources will continue to improve in the future, and it's expected that both supply and demand will remain strong in the next few years. According to prediction, the price of lithium carbonate will remain fluctuated at a high level in 2022, begin to decline gradually in 2023 and remain low for a period of time before starting to rebound in 2027.